In the hunting of waterfowl, whether it be geese, swans, ducks or the like, decoys are often used to attract flying birds within shooting range of a blind or other location of the hunter. At one time, tethered line birds were used and their natural movement was excellent for the purpose since the birds could move about some distance on their tethers. The use of live decoys has since been outlawed thus making the only decoys available are the artifical decoys. These can be made of wood, plastic, hard rubber or the like and can be painted to represent not only different species but old birds, young birds, and family groupings.
Birds in the process of landing, whether on water or in a field, will not land immediately over the birds already on the water ground. The apparent reason for this is that the landing birds realize that if the birds on the ground should flush, serious problems could ensue.
In addition to the above, it is known that all birds land up for obvious reasons. Some of the smaller species are able to turn at the last minute into the wind before landing while larger species require some distance of gliding before sitting down. In any case the landing patterns of the waterfowl must be taken into consideration in the setting of the decoys.
Although experienced waterfowlers are familiar with the above-discussed information, it is still difficult to arrange decoys for the maximum effect under various conditions and it is particularly difficult when such conditions are varying such as wind shifts and increase or decrease in velocity. When experienced waterfowlers have difficulty in properly setting decoys, for the novice or person who only occasionally hunts waterfowl it is almost impossible to obtain satisfactory results, particularly in areas where the birds have been shot over and are "educated".